The path to entrepreneurship
Eric Yuan was born into a family of mining engineers in Shandong Province, China. While still in school, he worked as a part-time worker collecting construction waste to sell scrap copper. Eric Yuan then entered Shandong University of Science and Technology, majoring in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science.
In 1990, Eric Yuan was working for a local company. He realized that only by going abroad to the US, where technology was booming, could he show his full potential.
Billionaire Bill Gates' speech during his visit to Japan in 1994 left an indelible impression on the ambitious businessman. After that, Eric Yuan was determined to make it to Silicon Valley.
“I decided to move to the US in the mid-1990s because of the development of the Internet, which I thought was the future. It didn't exist in China yet,” the billionaire shared.
Eric Yuan came to Silicon Valley in 1997. He joined WebEx, a startup with about a dozen employees.
In 2007, Cisco acquired WebEx, a multinational company. Eric Yuan became Vice President of Cisco's Connectivity Software Development Company.
Eric Yuan often encountered customers and found them dissatisfied with their current connectivity solutions, including WebEx. Eric Yuan thought of developing a platform for this solution.
In June 2011, Eric Yuan decided to launch the video communication platform he had been dreaming of for many years. More than 40 developers joined Eric Yuan in supporting the startup project. In 2012, the Zoom platform was officially launched.
Zoom was initially conceived as a platform for business customers. However, since 2020, more and more individual customers have started using the service for other purposes such as chatting with relatives or friends during the pandemic, consulting with experts online, and even hosting online parties.
As more countries impose travel restrictions due to Covid-19, Zoom has become increasingly popular. This friendly interface platform has become a lifesaver not only for large corporations to control the remote work of their employees, but also for millions of users around the world to communicate online.
In 2020, Eric Yuan officially appeared on Forbes' billionaire list, with an estimated fortune of 5.5 billion USD.
Startup project originated from love
Few people know that the birth of Zoom came from a very practical need of its founder. While studying at Shandong University of Science and Technology, Eric Yuan found the girl he loved.
But the problem was that Eric Yuan's girlfriend was studying in another city, hundreds of miles away from his university. This difficulty gave Eric Yuan the idea of building something like Zoom to end the 10-hour train ride every time he saw his girlfriend during his freshman year.
“I hated these trips and dreamed of inventing other ways for me to see her without traveling. That dream became the basis for creating Zoom,” Eric Yuan shared.
Eric Yuan never expected the platform to become as popular as it is today. “I never thought that overnight the whole world would switch to Zoom,” he admits.
It took Twitter a few years to get there. Zoom’s sudden surge in users was partly to blame for the data security issues. Then Zoom acquired secure messaging service Keybase, which provides end-to-end encryption for user data.
Eric Yuan had to work harder than usual and spend time reading specialized business literature.
As for the future of Zoom, Eric Yuan plans to look towards the app's augmented reality capabilities.
“One day I hope we can shake hands and it will be no different from a real handshake. Or you can smell my coffee in San Jose while sitting in your office in London. No physical distance! This is what I am truly passionate about. That is why I am still working so hard,” Eric Yuan shared.
Ha Thao (According to Marieclaire)
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